Accused in million-dollar burglary remanded

-after court hears of fugitive status

Anferny Cantzlaar, ac-cused of breaking into a woman’s house and stealing in excess of $1M in cash and items, was yesterday remanded to prison after a court was told that he was a fugitive who potentially faced other charges.

The first charge against Cantzlaar, 19, stated that on the night of October 2, at Georgetown, he broke and entered Rhonda Simmons’ home, from which he stole her 42” flat screen television, valued $140,000. Additionally, he is accused of stealing two laptop computers, two cell phones, a haversack, a quantity of jewellery, US$500 and a quantity of local currency, valued at $1,114,000 in total and belonging to Sylvie Elias, from Simmons’ house.

The young man, whose address was given as Lot 239 East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme,

Anferny Cantzlaar
Anferny Cantzlaar

denied both charges when they were read to him by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

The prosecution’s case is that on October 2, at about 12:45am, the complainants secured the premises and retired to bed. The court heard from Prosecutor Michael Grant that Simmons awoke at approximately 4:40am and discovered her door opened and the items mentioned in the charge missing. The court was further told that the matter was reported and after investigations, Cantzlaar was arrested and charged.

According to Grant, the accused told “Constable Kyte” that he and another person went into Simmons’ house.

Defence attorney Mark Conway was unsuccessful in securing his client’s pretrial liberty after Grant raised objections.

Conway, in his bail application, had said that Cantzlaar is a mason with a five-month-old daughter.

He said his client had no previous convictions nor pending matters but Grant challenged this claim. He said Cantzlaar has a number of matters currently before several courts and that he is wanted by the police at the Golden Grove Police Station in connection with other charges which are to be instituted.

When asked by the magistrate and his attorney whether he had pending matters, Cantzlaar vehemently denied the claim.

As a result, the Chief Magistrate stood the matter down for some time for the information to be clarified by the prosecutor, who later reported that the accused indeed has pending matters and is wanted by police.

Conway at this point substantiated the prosecutor’s report but noted that his client had told him that he had no pending matters.

After hearing submissions on both sides, the magistrate informed Cantzlaar that he would be remanded to prison until October 14, at which point bail will be considered if additional charges are not laid against him.